Watchung Hills' Julia Cunningham 'an incredible leader' for Princeton women's basketball

Courtney Banghart knew Julia Cunningham could score. After all, the Watchung Hills High School basketball player was on her way to being the girls’ all-time leading scorer. But there was more.

“Sure she had length and sure she could score,” said Banghart, who recruited her to Princeton University five years ago. “But you knew she would keep getting better and better. I always recruit kids whose ceiling isn’t even in sight, and she was just that. She loved the game. She was always working on her craft. I felt like every time I talked to her she was in the gym.”

Banghart was her coach freshman year before taking the head job at the University of North Carolina, where the Tar Heels are currently ranked No. 13 in the country. She left a legacy after Cunningham’s first season: eight NCAA appearances and a 30-0 regular season record in 2014-15.

Cunningham is a 5-foot-11 fifth-year senior. A shooting guard, she is a team captain for the second straight year, coming off a First Team All-Ivy League season. Four games into this season she was averaging 14 points and 6.5 rebounds, and had 12 assists, eight steals and seven blocks.

No surprise to her high school coach Reese Kirchofer.

“Her skill set was off the charts right off the bat,” he said. “But I think the biggest compliment I could pay Julia is that despite having massively talented skills, she always knew how to make other players better. That’s the ultimate compliment I think from a coach.”

A starter all four years, Cunningham had interest from numerous colleges, among them the University of Virginia and Wisconsin.

“She was a pleasure to work with,” Kirchofer said, who is back as head coach after taking a break the past two years. “Despite all her personal accomplishments, she did things humbly. She was all you could ask for.”

Princeton head coach Carla Berube, now in her fourth year with the Tigers, has coached Cunningham three seasons. The Tigers' success hasn’t waned, as she has them with two undefeated Ivy seasons.

“Julia has grown a lot,” said Berube, who played her college ball at Connecticut when the Huskies won their first national championship (35-0) in 1995. “She’s really developed her game at each end of the floor. She’s become a really great defensive player, has really good instincts, good length, good quickness and really good timing on things.

“She’s a great leader, too. She does a really amazing job with our young players. She has a positive impact on our program in so many ways. She works extremely hard in practice and takes extra shots on her game. She’s a tremendous student, too. She is just a consummate great student-athlete.”

Popular with her teammates, Cunningham comes with a lighthearted personality, quick to laugh but just as quick to get down to business. She is clearly a leader on this team, which has gotten off to a 3-1 start.

“Julia’s really fun to be around,” Berube said. “She’s a really good teammate; very caring. She’s always thinking about others and how they’re doing. She’s an incredible leader and an incredible captain.”

“I’ve definitely grown a little in the verbal category,” Cunningham offered. “Last year was, ‘Watch what Julia’s doing on the court and do that.’ This year is the same but I’m also bringing the underclassmen along a little bit, in the sense of sometimes you have to tell them what to do.”

Like it was for all Ivy League athletes, the 2020-21 season was shut down by COVID. She took a gap year, working in a physical therapy office and taking a couple of science classes. And of course, playing a lot of basketball.

Her major is psychology and pre-med, not surprising given that her parents are doctors. At Princeton, senior year also comes with a thesis. Hers is a psychological experiment.

“Basically to tie sports into it,” she said. “It’s how athletes share adversity and how it affects relationships on their teams. I’ll do a survey and interviews during the season, talking to players from around the country, then analyze data and write for the spring, which is kind of crazy.”

Long-term she wants to be a physician assistant. Short-term she would love to play ball in Europe for a year or two, saying with a smile, “I could get paid and have an opportunity to travel. That would be pretty cool. It’s kind of a win-win.”

Winning has become synonymous with Princeton women’s basketball. Berube goes into Saturday’s game against Buffalo with a record of 54-7.

Upcoming games include nationally ranked Texas and Connecticut, part of five straight road games. Their next home game at Jadwin Gym is Dec. 11 against Delaware. The Ivy League season begins New Year’s Eve.

In Wednesday’s 70-67 win against Fordham, Cunningham dropped in three free throws in the final 22 seconds.

“Right now we’re the hunters, and that’s our favorite spot,” she said. “We play really tough defense. Offensively we use a lot of motion and have a lot of players who can score. We’ll get better and better.’’

As always, so will she.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Princeton women's basketball: Julia Cunningham 'an incredible leader'